Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Ages

Chapter-5

THE WARNING AND THE FUNERAL

"A 1000 years or so ago,

As our majestic history shows;

Four great sorcerers from far and wide,

Came together to abide;

Their aim was just the same,

To become popular and earn fame.

So, the four good friends decided,

To get together never to be divided;

They had a noble ambition,

To establish the best magic-education institution.

Godric Gryffindor, the boldest apart,

Wanted to teach the brave at heart;

Helga Hufflepuff, the just and loyal,

Loved those who were unafraid of toil;

Rowena Ravenclaw, the brightest at mind,

Passed her learning to those of her kind;

The most cunning and shrewd, Salazar Slytherin,

Taught young wizards who were like him;

They united with a noble yearning,

To pass their learning;

Finally, Hogwarts began...

After a few years of happiness,

A rift between the founders sprang up

So, Slytherin left us in distress;

He wanted students with magical-heritage,

And loathed the ones of muggle parentage;

Then came the villainous time,

By powerful wizards dark-side was climbed;

Everywhere was seen duels and fight,

Wizard world face a terrible plight,

At last came the noble bloom,

In which the dark lord met his doom;

Over the night, stars can tell,

As the dark arts fell;

Though I must do what I'm for,

But knowing through the divine powers I adore...

Let me tell you, let me warn you,

There's a sure return of dark age,

Like a ghastly chapter's another page;

Although I am here to divide,

Inside Hogwarts all must unite;

That's the need of hour,

As the Dark- sorcery regains power;

Beware! What you are to do about,

Mind; watch out!

I have told you all I could-Hence,

Let the upcoming year now commence,

So don't fret so much, I won't take long,

Just put me and hold,

And let the sorting unfold..."

For the first time, there was no applause after the song. The Great Hall was dead quiet. But the Sorting Hat seemed to have been expecting this, so it started the sorting with "Aberdean, Michael,", who became a Ravenclaw.

Hermione was staring the ceiling with a haunted expression. Ginny followed her gaze and asked with an amused smirk, "Hermione, what makes you ignore the sorting?"

Having heard Ginny, Nearly Headless Nick came towards them, and said, "Hermione, I'm shocked... you didn't hear the sorting hat? I see that the hat warned us again...but I hope this time the war is not devastating as-the-last one," he said this with a mysterious note in his voice and glided away.

"He has definitely lost his marbles..." Ron muttered, utterly perplexed. "Have you understood what he said?" he asked Harry.

"No."

As soon as they returned their attention to the sorting, Dumbledore stoop up, and spoke in his calm voice that wore a sad note, "Welcome to Hogwarts! This year has started with an extremely sad event. Some of our fellow students have died in the mishap at the Platform. To pay our tribute to them, the term will now start from on 3^rd September. Tomorrow, at 12 noon, a funeral will be held for the ones who left us," he paused. "The accident today in the morning was a disaster for the magical community. But I repeat what I said, we stand as long as we are united and fall as soon as we are divided. What we need now... is to have the power to deny the wrong thing-as pleasant and easy it may be...and follow the right thing. For now, let the feast begin!"

The golden plate filled with food. But it seemed that everybody had lost their appetites. Even Ron, who always ate furiously on their feast, only ate a single helping of each course. Only the sad, gloomy silence enveloped the Hall.

***

Harry couldn't sleep. The scene at the platform was still reeling in front of him, as though someone had rewinded his life. And in an instant Sirius' death also dawned on him, making him feel again guilty of his death. The injustice of the life crushed his heart and cried bitterly for his Godfather, slowly drifting again into those nightmares...

Harry woke up very puffed eyed next morning. Ron yelled when he came in the Common Room, thinking he was a zombie. But Harry didn't blame him. He knew he must be looking bad because he was crying till late in the morning and hardly got any sleep. He was feeling very tired and couldn't open his eyes fully; but he came down only because he had to go for the funeral.

"Harry, what were you doing last night?" Hermione asked in her usual bossy-tone, though she still looked pale and her eyes were a bit red too. "You look...strange. Your eyes are swollen and red!" She suddenly grabbed his hands and nearly dragged him towards the portrait. "You need to go to Hospital Wing," she said.

"Hey, hey, hey! Come, on Hermione. I'm all right. Just didn't sleep well last night," said Harry exasperatedly, trying to laugh but failing miserably.

Ron came over and peered into his face and Harry was sure he guessed the reason for Harry's sleepless night as he said, "He'll be all right Hermione. Just wash your wash, and come back fast. We have to go, if you remember."

Harry nodded and rushed to the dormitories. He quickly got dressed and joined Ron and Hermione in the Common Room. Quietly, they went to Great Hall. The whole school was quiet. There was no laughter in the corridor, and it felt as if somebody had turned the volume off.

They started for Green House Seven after the breakfast to pick some flowers. Ginny, along with some other fifth years joined them at the Lake.

"You all go on, I'll come later," she said to them as she saw Hermione and rushed towards them. "Are you all right Hermione?" She took Hermione's hand and asked her. Hermione nodded slowly, now looking quite composed.

They went back to the Entrance Hall where the coffins and prayed for the dead. Amongst the dead were an unsorted first year, two Gryffindors, a Ravewnclaw and two Hufflepuffs. Hermione went directly to the smiling and waving photo of Dennis Creevey. She looked at his waving and happy photo for a long time when suddenly, tears started spilling from her brown eyes. Ginny, who was still at the photo of the Ravenclaw, rushed to her side. Harry tried to console her but she was still shaking from the sobs.

Suddenly Ron said in an urgent tone, "It was Dennis you saw dying on the Platform yesterday, wasn't it Hermione?"

He got a nod for an answer from Hermione, who was still sobbing on Harry's shoulders. Ginny shot Ron a 'do-we-have-to-talk-such-things-now?' look, gave Hermione a napkin and stirred her away to the grounds. Ron and Harry followed suit.

As soon as they joined Ginny and Hermione, they saw Hermione crying openly and talking at the same time. "It's entirely my fault he died. If I would have paid attention to the Death Eater near me, I would've- I would've seen the Killing Curse coming towards me and Dennis wouldn't have needed to come in its way to save me. He died to save me..." her voice trailed and she started crying hysterically, blaming herself for Dennis' death.

"Harry we need to take her back to the Common Room, she can't stand the funeral, that I am sure. So I am taking her back up. You and Ron may attend the funeral, I'll see to her," Ginny said, looking at Hermione. Harry shook his head. "No, it would be better if both of us are also present near her. It'll help," he said. Ron nodded frantically at his side.

***

Harry was having his lunch, when Ginny came over to him. "Amy and Stephanie have gone at the funeral and I hate eating alone. Mind if I join you?" she asked him.

"Yeah, sure."

"Where are Ron and Hermione?" she asked looking around for them.

"Well, Ron said he had a severe headache and needed medicine. So he went to the Hospital Wing. And Davies just took Hermione out to talk something 'urgent'. So, here I am, having my lunch alone" he replied. Harry saw Ginny's eyes contracting slightly at the mention of Davies, but hesitated to ask her the reason. Ginny nodded and started eating the baked potatoes.

"Harry, do you have any plans for starting the DA again?" she asked through a mouthful of food. Harry was strongly reminded of Ron at this and he told her so. In reply she just shrugged. "Just another Weasley traits, then. But I must say I do this loads better than Ron. He sprays food all over while talking," she said, shoveling another mouthful of food in her mouth. "Anyways, back to my question. What about it? Lots of students have been asking me as I talk to you and they can get to me more easily than you, for the fact that I am a Prefect." She smiled drily at the mentioning of herself as a Prefect. Harry smirked at her expression.

"I don't think we need to continue the DA. I mean, we have got a new and good Defence teacher- so why practice extra?" he said after some time.

Ginny pushed the food with a large gulp of her pumpkin juice and had just opened her mouth to retaliate when a defeaning roar erupted outside the Hall.

"WHAT WAS THAT, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE....?" someone shouted. Ginny craned her neck to see who it was. Half of the Great Hall, which was now considerably full, was also looking in the same direction.

But Harry needn't see the face to recognize who it was. It was Ron, shouting on an extremely shocked but tired Hermione.

"Ron- will you be quiet? We can talk later," said Hermione, trough gritted teeth.

"WHY DOESN'T HE-" he broke off suddenly noticing the dark and shocked looks he was getting from the people (including the teachers) in the hall. His eyes fell on Professor McGonagall who was looking at him dangerously and his anger faded in an instant. He grumpily came and sat down opposite to Harry.

He finished eating quickly and dragged Hermione (who was still having her lunch) out of the Hall as some students were still staring at them.

Ginny, sensing danger rushed towards them, Harry following her.

But they had disappeared in the grounds. They were going back to the castle, defeated when Harry and Ginny heard Ron yell and they quickly ran towards the direction of the voice.

"I DON'T BELIVE YOU!" yelled Ron as they reached behind him.

"THEN DON'T!! BECAUSE NOW I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT..." Hermione shouted angrily, with pink patches on her cheeks flaming. Harry noticed that her eyes were glistening with water.

"WHAT DO YOU...?"

"YOU'VE ALWAYS TAKEN ME GRANTED..." they were cutting each other in mid-sentences while Ginny was looking exasperatedly towards each of them and went between them.

"RON WEASLEY- NOW WE KNOW THAT YOU CAN SHOUT, SO WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT UP?" Ginny had to shout as they were still fighting even with her standing in between.

"Hermione!" shouted Harry, totally appalled at Ron's behaviour and wanting to console her.

Ginny also shot her brother a disgusted look at her brother and took Hermione towards the castle.

Harry turned to Ron. "What was that?"

"Er...urm...nothing," he muttered and went back to the castle.

***

"Will you come?" Harry asked gloomily. Ron was acting very strange since afternoon and wasn't talking to anyone, sitting quietly in the Common Room, pretending to read a book.

"No, I won't you go," Ron replied. Harry looked at Hermione and Ginny and raised his eyebrows. Hermione shook her head, and didn't budge even when Ginny nearly begged her to come. "You two go down, I'll come in a minute. I have to finish this page. Go on, I'll join you," she said. Ginny resignedly stood up and followed Harry down.

"I wonder what the problem with these two is, they never fight so violently, unless you count the fight in our fourth year," Harry mused aloud.

"I shouldn't tell you but..." Ginny trailed off as if making a mental commitment. "Actually I think it's related to Davies. When we were in the Prefects room, Davies was giving us the instructions. After the meeting got over, Hermione stayed over there as she was not feeling nice. So Davies went to her and asked what the problem was. Just then Ron came and gaped at them, shouted a bit, and ushered me and Hermione quickly to our compartment. And he has been acting strange since then.... But today, I don't know what happened and Hermione hasn't told me," Ginny finished. Harry could only nod.

There was not much space at the table as most of the house was downstairs, so Harry and Ginny sat beside each other. As soon as the food arrived, Ron came towards them, followed by Hermione, both extremely quiet, and sat beside Ginny.

They were half-way of their dinner when suddenly Ginny said, "Look!" and pointed towards Dumbledore.

A tiny scoop owl was sitting near his pumpkin juice. Dumbledore was reading a letter, which was strange as he seldom got letters at this time of the day.

He stood up suddenly and tapped his goblet as the owl took flight. Students fell silent.

"Some of you still might be eating your food, but as this is of great interest, I ask you all to kindly pay attention," said Dumbledore, scanning the entire hall. "Although all precautions were taken, there was a loss of life at the Triwizard tournament," Harry looked at Cho, who was determinedly looking at Dumbledore. "So to develop cordial relations among the magic schools in Europe, as it is the need of hour, we have decided to have interschool Quidditch matched this year at Durmstrang Institute of Sorcery."